Arjay

You said "Kevin Rudd just took off the subsidy for car natural gas conversions.How stupid is that?I don't think the right hand is even aware of the left hand."

Where did you get this info from?

As I understand it, the Liberal Party is conducting a scare campaign (they're very good at that) before the May budget:

http://www.liberal.org.au/info/news/detail/20080422_ScrappingLPGsubsidywilladdtopetrolpain.php

I too would be surprised if this policy was dumped (it was introduced in Howard's political dying days to salvage his "green" carrots).

It may be prudent to wait and see before everybody gets their knickers in a knot over misinformation or malicious intent ... don't you think?

Nevertheless, I like the 'thrust' of your thread ... much food for thought.

Q&A I heard this from a person in the industry.Perhaps it has not reached the media.Perhaps it is Kevin testing our awareness.
I don't trust either side of politics anymore,since the bottom line is that of donations.Those industries who donate the most,get the most Govt favours.At a State level there is a lot of corruption.So long as there are Swiss bank accounts and the cash economy,our Govts will be corrupted.

Arjay, yeah – who would want to be a politician? Topic for another thread?

I don’t know if that assertion of that ‘industry’ person is true and we will have to wait, another week. Maybe the subsidy will be ‘wound back’ given it has been very successful – it would have some ‘use-by-date’.

I would like to see it continue but hey, any treasurer/razor gang in Oz today is going to find it tough.

Also, rather than just this subsidy, I would like to see more tax breaks, rebates or subsidies go to renewable energy resources and reduce the subsidies to big-end energy users like aluminium smelters.

As for so called ‘clean coal’ and CC&S (and their subsidies) – that’s years away. But I understand why the coal industry is lobbying so hard.

“Selling off” the NSW power industry is another topical issue (I really feel for Belly) that is related to issues you raise but is better left to his current thread.

And don’t get me onto Uranium and nuclear power!

Bottom line - Australia is well endowed with energy resources (some more than others) and yes, we should be able to capitalise both here and abroad. Of course there are caveats, but it is the new way of doing things that we should embrace.

As for donations/corruption and Swiss bank accounts – I think I’ll pass.